Walter Bond

A final statement to the court.

I’m here today because I burned down the Sheepskin Factory in Glendale, CO, a business that sells pelts, furs and other dead animal skins. I know many people think I should feel remorse for what I’ve done. I guess this is the customary time when I’m supposed to grovel and beg for mercy. I assure you, if that is how I felt then I would. But I am not sorry for anything I have done. Nor am I frightened by this court’s authority. Because any system of law that values the rights of the oppressor over the downtrodden is an unjust system. And though this court has real and actual power, I question its morality. I doubt the court is interested in the precautions that I took to not harm any person or bystander and even less concerned with the miserable lives that sheep, cows and mink had to endure, unto death, so that a Colorado business could profit from their confinement, enslavement and murder.

Obviously the owners and employees of the sheepskin factory do not care either, or they would not be involved in such a sinister and macabre blood trade. So I will not waste my breath where it will only fall on deaf ears. That’s why I turned to illegal direct action to begin with: because you do not care. No matter how much we animal rights activists talk or reason with you, you do not care. Well, Mr. Livaditis [owner of the Sheepskin Factory], I don’t care about you. There is no common ground between people like you and me. I want you to know that no matter what this court sentences me to today, you have won nothing! Prison is no great hardship to me. In a society that values money over life, I consider it an honor to be a prisoner of war, the war against interspecies slavery and objectification! I also want you to know that I will never willingly pay you one dollar, not one! I hope your business fails and you choke to death on every penny of profit you receive from animal murder! I hope you choke on it and burn in hell!

To my supporters: Thank you for standing behind me and showing this court and these animal exploiters that we support our own and that we, as a movement, are not going to apologize for having a sense of urgency. We are not going to put the interests of commerce over sentience! And we will never stop educating, agitating and confronting those responsible for the death of our Mother Earth and her Animal Nations. My vegan sisters and brothers, our lives are not our own. Selfishness is the way of gluttons, perverts and purveyors of injustice. It has been said that all it takes for evil to conquer is for good people to do nothing. Conversely, all it takes to stop the enslavement, use, abuse and murder of other-than-human animals is the resolve to fight on their behalf!

Do what you can, do what you must, be vegan warriors and true animal defenders and never compromise with murderers and profiteers. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is the answer. Seldom has there been such a personally powerful and internationally effective movement in human history. You cannot join the ALF, but you can become the ALF, and it was the proudest and most powerful thing I have ever done.

When you leave this courtroom today don’t be dismayed by my incarceration. All the ferocity and love in my heart still lives on. Every time someone liberates an animal and smashes their cage, it lives on! Every time an activist refuses to bow down to laws that protect murder, it lives on! And it lives on every time the night sky lights up ablaze with the ruins of another animal exploiters’ business!

That’s all Your Honor, I am ready to go to prison.

Walter Bond, a 34-year-old vegan and admitted “lone wolf” animal liberationist, gave this speech prior to his sentencing on February 11, 2011. Bond now faces charges in Utah for arson attacks on the Tandy Leather Factory and on Tiburon, a foie gras restaurant. supportwalter.org